The Green and Gold staff is excited for the debut of a new series of articles revealing the underground talents of Wesleyan students. To christen this endeavor, the Green and Gold will highlight talented artist, sophomore Grace Halley. Halley came to Wesleyan as a freshman last year, and has been drawing all her life. Most of her skill as an artist is self-taught, but she takes art classes at Wesleyan and has learned from her mom who took art classes in college and likes to draw in sketchbooks.
Halley hopes to pursue a career as an animator, and she loves to draw her own characters. Most of her work is done on a computer and she often uses Photoshop. When asked about advice she would give to aspiring artists, Halley said, “No one can really fail at art. I hate it when people say they are bad at art. Anyone can be successful when they try.” The Green and Gold staff looks forward to featuring Halley’s art in comic strips in future issues.
Wesleyan fans dressed in pink last Friday in honor of breast cancer awareness. Photo by: Brian Morgan
The Wesleyan Wolves are halfway through the regular season and remain undefeated with a record of 5-0 after a crucial victory last Friday over Pace Academy. Friday’s game had been highly anticipated since before the season even began, and Wesleyan put in plenty of preparation knowing that Pace would present one of the season’s toughest challenges. Wesleyan showed strong support with fans wearing pink in recognition of the GHSA sanctioned breast cancer awareness week, and the game was selected as the “Fox 5 Game of the Week.”
A light, steady rain fell on the field at Henderson Stadium, and just as the Pace Knights prepared to receive the ball, the lights went out, delaying kickoff for 25 minutes while the issue was resolved. When the lights came back on, senior Jordan Weaver booted the ball into the end zone for a touchback.
The Knights offense started off with a few first downs, but failed to move the ball past midfield, partially due to a holding penalty. Penalties have been a weakness for Pace all season, and would allow the Wolves to make a stop and bring out the offense. Wesleyan also could not score on their first drive, so the Knights got the ball back on the 20. After a long, steady drive, Samuel Sloman made a 32 yard field goal putting Pace ahead by 3 with the first score of the game.
Wesleyan responded with a dynamic attack on offense. Sophomore quarterback Banks Ramsey made a few completions to senior Tucker Cannon, and the drive was highlighted by a 65 yard run from senior Jordan Argilagos. Argilagos showed some impressive speed, but was dragged down by a horse collar at the two yard line. Ramsey punched the ball in on a keeper the following play. The PAT was no good, and the Wolves went ahead 6-3.
After the half, Wesleyan received the ball and put together another solid drive on offense. Ramsey put a well thrown ball in the hands of junior Harrison Cook for a 35 yard completion. Ramsey later scored on another one yard keeper. After another failed PAT, the Wolves moved the score to 12-3.
The Knights’ next possession provided an opportunity for the Wesleyan defense to show its versatility. Senior Cole Mannion has brought experience and leadership to the Wolves’ secondary this year. In regards to the defensive effort against Pace, Mannion said, “Our defense did a really good job of first stopping the run and then shutting down the pass game. We also were great at containing their scrambling quarterback.” Senior Kevin Stipe ended the Knights’ drive with an interception returned for a touchdown. The Knights stopped Wesleyan’s two point conversion attempt, and the score was 18-3.
Pace refused to give up and managed to score once more with an 80 yard run by Deon Jackson at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter was a stalemate and did not yield points for either team. The Wolves’ defense continued to shutdown Pace, and a couple of long drives on offense took time off the clock. After a huge win, Wesleyan will carry its momentum into an easier matchup next week away against Hapeville.
If I had a dollar for every time I have asked myself, my classmates or my teachers the question “When will I ever use this?” I would already be retired in the Hamptons. I vividly remember the first time I began to question the idea of school in fifth grade. I was sitting in Mrs. Greene’s math class learning about integers, and I began to wonder how my new knowledge of positive whole numbers and their opposites would ever apply to my career as a professional athlete of some sort. I was a naïve 11-year-old at the time in more ways than one, but that would not be the last occasion on which I asked a question along the lines of “Why am I learning this?”
Now that I am a mature adult, I have come to the unfortunate realization that despite my water polo skills, I will not be a professional athlete of any sort, so perhaps integers actually will apply to my career on some level. That being said, it is still valid to assert that the majority of the information I learn in high school will be useless to me in six years. If one day I pursue a career in business, my understanding of Life of Pi, The Crucible, “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” Calculus or Physics is unlikely to contribute to my success, so what is the point?
It is important to question why we do things the way we do. Why do we learn things every day that we will only use if we become a high school teacher? What would school be like if we only learned skills and information that apply directly to careers we are interested in? This may initially seem like a brilliant idea, but upon further consideration, some of the downfalls become clear.
Image: Google Images
I believe school would be boring, impractical and ineffective if it functioned this way. First of all, regardless of what many students may think, the vast majority of high schoolers have no clue what they will be doing in 10 years. Secondly, a curriculum so narrowly focused would quickly become extraordinarily dull. You are probably thinking “school is already boring,” but imagine if you were only in one class all day. Diversifying our studies keeps things interesting, at least to a degree. Finally, lacking education in areas that do not apply to a specific career would for all intents and purposes make us robots who are only capable of operating for one purpose or task.
So perhaps we should broaden our studies in high school and learn a few things that will not necessarily apply directly to the career path we choose, but do I still need to learn about derivatives and Newton’s Laws? Of course. Though it may often feel like a waste of time, there is so much value in learning any new concepts or information. I seriously doubt that a business man would ever need to know the slope of the tangent line of any function at any point, but learning to think critically by way of finding the derivative teaches us to reason and solve problems. High school teaches us so much in so many different ways, and all of it will apply to our future careers even if none of it does.
I pride myself on my ability to solve problems and get things done. I owe so much of that to Mrs. Smith, Dr. G and Jonathan Koch, among others. Though Honors Pre-Calculus, Biology and American Literature might not be at the forefront of my future occupation, the concepts I learned in those classes taught me to think in different ways, and that will help me be successful. Next time you are frustrated because you think you are learning useless information, you might be right, but do not be discouraged. That useless information just might be the key to your future success.
